Page 51 - Priorities #71

Louis Lajos Kovács 1937-2019
For more than 40 years of his life, Louis Kovács contributed to the Priory community in a variety of ways. He first arrived at the Priory in 1963 when he joined the monastic community for the next 11 years. He then began a family together with his wife
Klara. Both their children attended Priory, Suzi graduating in 1998 and Zoltan in 2000. Having received his degree in Horticulture, Louis served the Priory community as chief gardener and groundskeeper, planting countless trees and brush over the years. The towering redwoods which line our entrance road were started by Louis from seed. As a teenager in Hungary he apprenticed as a cabinetmaker and put those skills to profitable use here at the Priory as well. His handiwork in wood can be seen in many places at Priory, most strikingly in the Priory chapel where he made the choir stalls and altar. His decades of devoted service for tending the Priory playing fields was recognized by naming the front playing field in his honor as the Louis Kovács field.
Following their retirement from the Priory in 2005 Louis and Klara lived for a while in Porterville, CA and then 10 years ago moved back to Hungary, the place of their birth. For the last several years Louis has been suffering from Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s. His funeral will take place in Keszthely, Hungary on March 20, with Father Maurus presiding. Louis and Father Maurus grew up together as next-door neighbors in the village of Hahót, and in 1956, during the aftermath of the Hungarian Revolution, escaped together to Austria. After spending some months in refugee camps there and later in Holland, they both emigrated to Canada in 1957, settling in Vancouver. Both came to the Priory in 1963 and entered the monastic community.
Louis and Klara both received the Priory’s Saint Benedict award in grateful recognition of their decades of service to the Benedictine spirit upon which the Priory was founded and continues to operate. May he rest in peace.
The date and time for a Memorial Mass for Louis here at the Priory will be announced in the near future.
Condolences may be sent to his wife Klara at okosanyu@aol.com, his daughter Suzi at pinklily98@aol.com and his son Zoltan at zoltan@ikovacs.com.
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IN MEMORIAM